Free cell phones to illegal immigrants? Not so fast

U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio was barely two hours into promoting an immigration reform plan when he was forced to defend allegations that he was backing a plan to hand out government-issued cell phones to illegal immigrants.

Sen. Marco Rubio

“That’s false,” Rubio said in a radio interview earlier today with conservative host Laura Ingraham. “That’s not for the illegal immigrants.”

Rubio said the comprehensive immigration reform bill contains a two-year grant program to provide phones to people or businesses near the border so they can report violence. Rubio said parts of the border are desolate and have no cellular service, preventing residents from calling in illegal crossings.

“And what it does is it provides communication equipment to people who are living in the border region so they can report illegal crossings because many of them either don’t have phone service or don’t have cell phone service and they have no way of calling,” Rubio said during the interview.

But conservative blog sites have seized on the provision, calling it “MarcoPhone” and saying they would go to immigrants.

In a statement to the media, Rubio’s office called the MarcoPhone claims false, saying the phones are part of enhancing security on the U.S. border with Mexico. Rubio explained further on Ingraham’s show.

“Because one of the complaints we got from the border region is they don’t have any way to communicate with police or border patrol in time if they see something happening on the border,” Rubio said. “So this is designed to help in that regard. It’s not some effort to provide phone service to anybody.”

Rubio is taking his message on reform straight to his supporters in a new video put out by Rubio's Reclaim America Pac.

Jeremy Wallace

Jeremy Wallace has covered politics for more than 15 years.
He can be reached by email or call (941) 361-4966.
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Last modified: April 17, 2013
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